As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An information handling system may include one or more circuit boards operable to mechanically support and electrically couple electronic components making up the information handling system. For example, circuit boards may be used as part of motherboards, memories, storage devices, storage device controllers, peripherals, peripheral cards, network interface cards, and/or other electronic components. As is known in the art, a circuit board may comprise a plurality of conductive layers separated and supported by layers of insulating material laminated together, with conductive traces disposed on and/or in any of such conductive layers.
Circuit boards often include pads for surface-mount connectors or other devices that are de-populated on production systems intended for an end user. Such devices may include debuggers or verification devices intended to test system functionality (e.g., Joint Test Action Group, Inter-Integrated Circuit, In-Target Probe, and other debugger or verification devices), but not intended to be included with an information handling system provided to an end user. Accordingly, these de-populated pads provide interfaces that may sometimes be used to access or program information handling system components, compromising security of the entire information handling system. For example, an unauthorized party may gain access to and reprogram parts of an information handling system by populating de-populated parts.